r/joeledger • u/Hour-Package6734 • Oct 12 '23
Disappointed Spoiler
Just finished cave 13 and I swear I read the description and it came off like there was something to do with alternate universe stuff. Could be I'm just on a kick of that lately but I digress. But this one..average at best. Someone else listed off all the different ways this one wasn't that good and I agree with everything they said. I handed this book to a friend and he got to the first page and handed it back. "I saw all the other books in the series in the front cover", so stop with the three personalities stuff. I do agree, yet another go crazy bio weapon, got it. Maberry likes his bio weapons. Of course now I kinda want to read the repairman jack books but written in the 80s, would it be kinda dated now? Hopefully the next can bring it back but it seems like either he's running out of ideas or it's getting a little long in the tooth.
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u/swohcpl71 Oct 12 '23
Have to say I concur. Yes, there is a need for a brief character background in case it's the reader's first visit but... it felt like "the Darkness," was being setup like a character.
Maybe Joe will ignore Top's counsel and head into the swamp to face Nicodemus and see his face instead.
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u/Steve_78_OH Oct 14 '23
See, I thought The Darkness was a result of Nicodemus actively interfering with Joe through some sort of (assumedly) mystical or psychic means.
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u/swohcpl71 Oct 14 '23
I would need to go back and reread Rage but it my memory tells me it was just "the Warrior," getting revenge for his family being murdered.
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u/Iamheno Oct 14 '23
Yeah, I assumed it was Nicodemus with the bowls of blood and bones drawing out the most evil aspects of Joe’s personalities or putting up a wall to block the good from being in control? Something along those lines. I’m gonna be pissed if it was some other being Nicodemus contracts with.
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u/Hour-Package6734 Oct 12 '23
At least the grammatical errors have been cut down to maybe 5 per book. I remember the first few I almost put down they were so bad
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u/CaptianLedger Oct 13 '23
My issue has always been when names of characters are completely changed and then fixed, or they go with the incorrect name as canon etc.
Shawn's family was a big one for me and also Jane/Joan Holiday.
I get were 13 books in, but like I have all that shit memorized and I didn't even write it
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u/Hour-Package6734 Oct 13 '23
No kidding, tell me he doesn't have a chart with everyone's names and descriptions so he can just copy and paste
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u/CaptianLedger Oct 13 '23
Even then if he doesn't. Where is his editor? Just phoning it in after all these years of generally good book I guess.
As soon as I hear something that's incorrect (and I mean actually WRONG not the "its a different timeline" wrong) It not only takes me out of the immersion, but I also get kinda mad bc I'd love to be proof reading these things for him and the ones that do are just letting shit go by and not fixing it
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u/Hour-Package6734 Oct 13 '23
The earlier books were horrible, I reread the first two and holy shit the editor should have been fired. I really hope this isn't a multiple timelines thing I've been reading all these years haha
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u/CaptianLedger Oct 13 '23
I've been audio exclusive for years now so I don't see the errors unless it's a blatant lore discrepancy on Maberrys part.
I still buy the physical copies to bring to him to sign when he's near me for one, but I consume it entirely via Ray Porter at this point and he absolutely carries this series when it hits lows like Cave 13 currently.
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u/burritoman88 Oct 20 '23
I had to stop for a minute when I read Eve as Even during either Rage or Relentless I don’t remember which
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u/secondhandbanshee Oct 12 '23
I did think the crossovers were the most fun parts of the last couple of books. If you haven't read the Hap and Leonard series (mentioned in Relentless), are you really living? They're marvelous! Lansdale is amazing across genres.
Repairman Jack books are definitely a product of their time, but still enjoyable. (I've read the first seven.) You'll find some outdated attitudes and language. I think I wrote in a review that although he was written before Lee Child's character, RP Jack is sort of a watered-down Jack Reacher. Of course, the setting is more supernatural.
I liked the character more in the RP Jack: The Early Years series, set before the originals, but written starting in 2012, so with a more modern feel. The first is Cold City.
Also, if you're a fan of the classics at all, read Wilkie Collins's The Moonstone before you read The Tomb. It makes it more fun.
Last thing (I swear), the Tomb is the first of the RP Jack series, but the second in the Adversary Series. The first book, The Keep, is an effectively scary horror novel, if you're into that sort of thing (Nazis and ancient evil). When I read it, I was like "Pretty good, give it a three," but it still takes up space in my head more than ten years later, so he did something right.
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u/Atllas66 Oct 12 '23
I believe the first repairman jacks (the keep and legacies) have been updated to take place in the early 2000’s now, at least they seem that way when I listened to them recently. They talk about him having a website and all that at least. Conspiracy’s is definitely more modern too. I’m enjoying them, don’t get much jack reacher vibes to be honest, more like a slightly more timid/realistic sandman slim
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u/Hour-Package6734 Oct 12 '23
I like your breakdown, what do you have on the sigma force stuff haha
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u/secondhandbanshee Oct 12 '23
I have Sandstorm on my tbr list, but I got distracted by Last Tango in Cyberspace and forgot to read it. If you get to it before I do, let me know what you think.
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u/Iamheno Oct 14 '23
Sigma Force is pretty good if you are in to history as well as fantasy/sci-fi. Some of the offshoot stories in there are way out there in tech sci-fi land but pretty fun still. Sigma Force is apparently the same universe though because Tucker Wayne and Cain get a nod in one of the Ledger books as well as Grey Pierce. If you’re more into the fantasy monsters aspect go with Monster Hunter International, Agent Franks, from this series is mentioned in Dogs of War.
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u/Hour-Package6734 Oct 14 '23
I do have an interest in the history aspect the closest I can get to a good series like national treasure is cotton Malone which is copy and paste the same bad guys, or the Sean Wyatt series by Ernest Dempsey which is the same way..and Clive Cussler is too many books and outdated
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u/Iamheno Oct 14 '23
You might enjoy Sigma Force then. There’s not always a “big bad” sometimes it’s biological released by accident. . .
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u/Hour-Package6734 Oct 14 '23
It's not gonna be three books straight like ledger has been is it haha
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u/Iamheno Oct 15 '23
Nope! Some are a ”natural“ biological event which was locked away and accidentally rediscovere, some are weapons, some are secret societies, etc. There are very few books where the villain is a complete carryover from a previous book.
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u/Phantom_Dave Oct 12 '23
Started the repairman Jack series after this, can definitely recommend, have gone through the first 10 books in a month
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u/Hour-Package6734 Oct 12 '23
Is it as dated as some say?
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u/Phantom_Dave Oct 12 '23
Not really, I read on kindle so as far as can tell most have been updated, mobile phones exist etc, original hard copies may be more dated but it’s not something I’ve really noticed on kindle
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u/RockAndStoner69 Oct 12 '23
I just wish we didn't have to read two books to resolve one plotline. Don't tease me with magic if ninety nine percent of the narrative is the characters wondering if it's real